Gov. Greg Gianforte announced last week that Montana’s unemployment rate in July is below 3 percent for the 21st consecutive month. The only other time Montana’s unemployment rate was below 3 percent for three months was in 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gianforte also announced Montana’s total employment reached an all-time high, with nearly 563,000 Montanans

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Montana is accepting applications for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program and Wetlands Reserve Easements. To be considered for funding in the current cycle, producers and landowners should apply by Oct. 27. “NRCS provides funding and technical assistance

Chris La Tray didn’t start out wanting to write poetry. He was far more interested in rock n’ roll. “I was one of those kids who thought I hated poetry because it was incomprehensible, dead white guys. So much is obtuse,” said La Tray, who grew up in Frenchtown and is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. After graduating high school in 1986, he moved to Seattle,

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has announced more than $26 million in funding for infrastructure projects in rural communities across Montana. The funding will come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Block Grant program, which Tester expanded as part of his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Tester was the only member of Montana’s congressional

Carl Sack is no fan of marijuana. He tried smoking once in high school and hasn’t touched it since. And he doesn’t just dislike the clouds of pot smoke he encounters around Duluth, Minn., — he hates them. “I can’t stand to be around the stuff,” he said. But he’s still adamantly opposed to local efforts to ban the public consumption of marijuana, which became legal for recreational

Growing up in Butte, Montana, I remember watching The Wizard of Oz in my family’s living room, mesmerized by the fiery, all-powerful Oz and wondering who he really was. His booming voice. His power over the lives of everyday creatures in Oz, all pining for something they needed. And then there was the big reveal. As Oz’s voice booms over Dorothy and her new friends, Toto bites the emerald